Broncos baseball go 3-1 in crucial league stretch

The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Broncos baseball team went 3-1 in league play last week, sweeping the Reardan Indians at home on April 16 and splitting a road doubleheader against the Liberty Lancers on April 20.

The Broncos end regular season league play with a record of 3-5, and will play two more non-league doubleheaders before postseason play begins.

In the first game of the home doubleheader against Reardan, the Broncos narrowly pulled out a 3-1 victory. LRS got on the board early with a run in the first inning, and held a 1-0 lead before Reardan got on the board in the top of the fourth inning to tie the game.

The Broncos broke the tie in the bottom half of the inning, thanks to a two-run double from junior Cole Cameron. Those two runs were all that LRS needed, as junior Garrett Frederick pitched six scoreless innings while senior Bryce Kelly came in and notched the save in the seventh inning, securing a 3-1 Broncos win.

The bats came alive for LRS in game No. 2 of the doubleheader, but Reardan initially jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the top of the first inning. But like in game No. 1, LRS responded immediately. The Broncos scored three runs in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game up at 3, and the LRS pitching staff of senior Bryce Hansen and freshman Owen Telecky proceeded to blank the Reardan batters for the game's final six innings.

The Broncos added two more runs to go up 5-3 in the third inning, and five more runs in the fifth inning to go up 10-3. LRS would go on to win, 12-3.

Cameron doubled again in the second game of the doubleheader, while junior Spencer Miller also doubled, walked twice, drove in three runs and scored twice in the Broncos' demolition of the Indians.

On April 20, the Broncos traveled to Liberty to take on the Lancers in their second league doubleheader of the week. The first game of the doubleheader was a struggle for the LRS pitching staff, which gave up four runs in an inning twice, in the first and the fourth inning.

Liberty had a 10-3 lead heading into the fifth inning, and LRS was never able to put a big inning together of their owning, scoring one run in each of the final three innings. Liberty took game No. 1 of the doubleheader, 11-6.

But the Broncos flipped the script in game No. 2, scoring three runs in the first inning to jump on top of the Lancers early. LRS added four more runs in the third innings and three in the fifth inning to take a 10-2 lead, and would eventually go on to win 11-4.

Miller had another good day at the plate, going 2-4 to help lead the LRS bats. Hansen got the start for the Broncos, pitching a complete game with Miller behind the plate catching.

With several games left between Northeast 2B South foes, it's not yet clear what place the Broncos will finish the regular season in. For their part, LRS had three non-league games left on its schedule before postseason play begins, both at home.

The Broncos hosted Lakeside on April 24, and a recap of that doubleheader will be included in next week's issue of The Journal. The Broncos will host Lake Roosevelt on April 26 for just one game, with first pitch scheduled for 4:30 p.m.